Thebes was established in 1835. At first it was known as Sparhawk Landing. It was the county seat of Alexander County from 1846 until 1859.[4]
Thebes, like the city of Cairo, also in Alexander County, is named after the Egyptian city of the same name.[5] This part of southern Illinois is known as Little Egypt.
Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Legend holds that Dred Scott, a slave whose freedom suit reached the Supreme Court, may have been imprisoned in the local courthouse jail for a time while his case was heard. He had claimed freedom after being held in a free state but, setting aside decades of precedent, the US Supreme Court held that African Americans had no rights under the constitution, and slaves had no standing to sue for freedom (see Dred Scott v. Sanford).
As the Mississippi River at Thebes is more than four feet deep, the town became a busy steamboat port. Union troops passed through Thebes on their way to attack the South during the American Civil War. Thebes was the site of the lynching of William Johnson on April 26, 1903. Thebes Bridge, an important railroad bridge, opened for rail traffic in 1905 and is still in use today.